Table

Here is a table that I just finished.  This is really the first thing that I have built completely of my own design.  The legs are made from ash and the top is a piece of a walnut "crotch".  A crotch is where a tree trunk splits in two directions.  I wanted to leave the top as close to it's natural shape as possible, hence the knot hole.  It also has some really nice figuring.

Most of the work on this was in the legs.  The are joined with mortise and tenons and there are no mechanical fasteners. They start out at just under 2 inches thick at the top and taper in both thickness and width over their entire length to about 1/2 inch at the bottom.  The top sits into notches in the legs and it is free floating; there is no glue, screws, or anything else connecting the legs to the top.  I constructed it this way because of the grain pattern in the top.  Wood expands across it's grain so I didn't want to have a situation where the top would expand and crack with changes in moisture. 

The top itself is not flat.  It is twisted and the end where the knot hole is slopes in the opposite direction of the rest of the top, but it is very smooth.  I had to do this for two reasons.  The first being that the piece of wood I started working with was not very thick.  If I were to flatten it completely it would have ended up being about an eighth of an inch thick.  Secondly, I wanted to make sure I had the knot in the table top and I didn't want to plane away the figuring in the wood.  

 Here it is.  My photography skills leave much to be desired.

 In different lighting:

Woodworking

So, I start woodworking as a hobby a little less than a year ago, kind of on a whim.  I had never done any woodworking before but a friend of mine had a table saw for sale.  I bought it and away I went.  Since then I've converted my garage into a fully (mostly) equipped wood shop.  I say mostly because I still need to get a lathe.   I should note that I did take "Woods 1" in high school but the only thing I remember from that is to not cut your fingers off with the radial arm saw. 

Woodworking is in my blood.  My grandfather has been a carpenter and a woodworker for his entire life. And my father is the type of guy that can make or fix ANYTHING.  And I really do mean anything.  I've learned a lot from both of these men and I know what I have been taught is just a fraction of what they know. 

Anyway I decided to start Woodworking.  I watched a few Youtube videos on things that I wanted to do, or a magazine article here and there, but for the most part I just kind of make it up as I go. Though the first couple things that I built I did from plans in magazines.  They helped guide me quite a bit and taught me some helpful things as well.  I've decided that I am going to post the things I make on here, because why the hell not.  I have to say I am kind of self-centered when it comes to wood working.  Self-centered in the way that I want to make what I want to make.  I find it to be a great creative outlet and in that sense I don't want to work inside of someone else' box, I do that for 40 hours a week. 

It's My Blog and I'll Post If I Want To.

Ok, first things first.  Blog name changes-  I changed it because limiting this to breakfast just isn't happening.  Not enough breakfast 'round these parts.  The name will probably change again once I come up with something more inspired.  The URL may change too, we'll see.  I've also decided that I am going to post whatever I feel like.  Why not, it's my blog. 

Cupcakes in my breakfast?

So lately there have been a few specialty cupcake stores pop up around the city.  So far I have tried three of them: PJ's Baby Cakes, Cupcakes & More, and Serendipities Cupcakes.  I figured I might as well blog about them because I think I have eaten at every breakfast establishment that this city has to offer.

I do believe that PJ's was the first in the city.  They are located on North 48th, just south of Adams.  This little store offers quite a large variety of cupcakes and they offer new experiments every Tuesday.  To me, their cakes are a little small, but they do have some larger "specialty" cupcakes.  I've tried probably a dozen different types with my favorite being the "Madison".  The Madison is their take on the classic Hostess chocolate cupcake with the white squiggle on the top.  The downside to the Madison is it is only available on Thursdays.  The other downside is the hours that PJ's is open.  I think they have different hours on every day of the week.

Next is Cupcakes & More located at 56th and Old Cheney.  I've only tried one cupcake from this place, their "signature", which is a chocolate cake with white and chocolate frosting.  The nice thing about Cupcakes & More is that they offer 3 different sizes of cupcakes, ranging from $1 to $3.  I of coarse go the largest one. If you like a lot of frosting this is the place for you.  Their largest size cakes have an ample amount of frosting on top, plus they are filled with frosting.  A bit of an overload for me but some people are into that sort of thing.  I try not to judge.  I need to go back and try a few more of their offerings.  They also sell "cake pops" which I guess is some new trendy cake thing on a stick. (shrugs).

The newest cupcake on the block is Serendipities Cupcakes at 27th and Superior.  Abby and I were greeted with "I've been waiting all day for to come in" by a really nice woman behind the counter.  I took home a half dozen different kinds.  When I was handed the container I was surprised by the weight of the cupcakes.  These were different than the other two stores, more dense.  My favorite was the carrot cake, because I love carrot cake.  Now, my mother makes an amazing carrot cake, but at the risk of getting myself in trouble, Mom's carrot cake is now the second best I've ever had.  Serendipities is the first. 
The other one that I really liked was the 'Smores.  The top of the cake was almost like a brownie, and the "stump" was more of a dense chocolate cake topped with marshmellow-y frosting and a piece of Hersey's chocolate. Though when I pulled the piece of chocolate out of the frosting it was only a half piece, but I'm just being picky.

Out of these three Serendipities is my favorite, but all of them are very good.
I think there are couple other places that I need to try, and I'm sure one or two have opened while I've been writing this.


Additionally, maybe I should rename this blog.  "Eating Lincoln"? "Food Mike Eats"?  "Things I Eat and Then Write About"?  That one seems a little lengthy.  I'm open to suggestions.

M&N Sandwich

It has been WAY to long since I have written one of these and I am going to try to catch up when I have time as I have several restaurants to write about. This isn't a breakfast place, but in my opinion a hidden gem in the center of Lincoln.

Today a co-worker and I went to M&N Sandwich at 27th and Randolph.  M&N is tucked in between a series of shops on the Northeast corner of the intersection and is very unassuming from the outside.  If you drive there you will need to park in the alley in the back.  I have eaten here several times over the past couple years and I keep going back for one simple reason: it is really good.

Inside is no frills.  A few tables and chairs, a tv in the corner, a menu board with pictures, and a counter to order at.  Some people liken the gentleman behind the counter to the "Soup Nazi" from Seinfeld.  He is a little gruff, but makes a hell of a sandwich.  A little advise: look at the pictures and know what you want to order when you get to the counter. 

Today I had the double Italian combo.  A sandwich made of a hearty Italian roll, Italian beef, pastrami, and topped with Swiss cheese.  The sandwich comes three ways: light, medium, or juicy.  I usually go with medium, meaning the sandwich is dipped in au jus.  Its juicy but you can still pick it up.  If you go "juicy" you will have juice running down your elbows when you eat it, and if you order "light" you will probably get a very stern look from the owner.

Last summer in Chicago I went to Al's Beef to have an Italian Beef sandwich.  I had seen Al's Beef shown all over the travel shows on TV as having an amazing sandwich, and they do... but M&N blows them out of the water every day of the week.  Abby doesn't care for M&N but I think she is flat out crazy... maybe some of the "charm" is lost on her.  Regardless I love the place.  Be prepared to wait though, depending on when you show up.  It is a one man show and he makes every order individually.  It takes a little time but trust me it is worth it. 


One other thing I think I am going to do with this blog is post movie recommendations.  The people that know me know that I watch a ton of movies; and being so, I watch a lot of movies that other people never see.  So, for my first recommendation is the movie Dogtooth.  This is a Oscar nominated Greek movie about a family that lives secluded from the rest of society.  The movie is a little strange but I found it very engaging; I was always trying to figure out what exactly is going on.  Go get a sandwich and watch a movie, hopefully neither will disappoint.

Aura

So this is my first non-breakfast blog and I really need to keep this thing more up to date. I have about a month of lag between when we eat somewhere and when I write about it.  I also want to preface this entry by saying that I want to keep this website as positive as possible.  I don't like writing negative things and I keep this blog as a hobby and because it is something that I enjoy. Anyway...

Aura.  We went to Aura for our anniversary last month. Nine years already!  We usually try to find a nicer restaurant to go to and spend too much money on for a dinner for two.  After looking at their menu and pictures on their website (www.dineaura.com)  I thought this place would be a good fit and a bit fancier than usual.  To Abby it looked a little too "foo-foo" but I told her that if we didn't enjoy it at least it would give us something to complain about. 

We had my brother come over to babysit, got dressed, and headed out.  Upon arriving we were seated immediately.  For appetizers we ordered tuna tartare and some bruschetta with shrimp and steak.  The tuna was everything I hoped it would be.  Ahi tuna in soy sauce, sesame oil, wasabi and scallions. I LOVE sushi and this was right up my alley.  Delicious. The other appetizer wasn't really anything special.  A piece of bruschetta with a slice of skirt steak or a piece of shrimp.  It was difficult to eat and I thought that it didn't have much flavor at all.

For our main courses Abby ordered the shrimp and I ordered the duck.  This is where things went bad. Worse than bad.  The shrimp was served with risotto and was advertised as having some sort of garlic butter sauce or something.  Quite honestly nothing on Abby's plate had any flavor.  The shrimp were not anything special.  They looked like the pre-cooked frozen shrimp that you get at Walmart in a bag and there was no garlic buttery anything.  The risotto was just as disappointing as it had NO flavor.  If you didn't tell me it was risotto I would have thought they were grits.  I'm not knocking grits, but come on, they are bland.  

Abby's food being as bland as it was I would have traded my plate for hers in a heartbeat.  My duck was served with some sort of cherry sauce and wild rice.  To say it was bad would be one of the biggest understatements I could make.  It was flat out terrible.  Who ever made the cherry sauce must have had their tongue removed somewhere previous to working in a restaurant.  It was so incredibly bitter that it was inedible.  I tried as hard as I could to eat it but three bites was all I could force down.  I have never sent something back to my kitchen in my entire life but in this case I had to.  Hopefully they will reconsider serving food of this quality in the future.  When we were getting ready to leave I overheard a waiter at another table say that they had a special sushi menu that evening, something our waiter neglected to tell us.   I wish I would have known because this blog may have went in the opposite direction.  Oh well.

After leaving completely unsatisfied and still hungry Abby and I went to Big Red Keno for nachos and a few beers.  I played my normal numbers and won back all of the money that I spent at Aura. Thanks, universe!  While this was probably the worst restaurant that either of us has been to I do have to say I was left eating my own words.  It has given us something to complain about and turned out to be one of our more memorable anniversaries. 

The Green Gateau

This last weekend we tried The Green Gateau in downtown Lincoln.  The Green Gateau is more upscale than the other places we have been; tablecloths etc.  Abby and I ate here years ago but I really couldn't remember too much about it so we headed back.

The restaurant seemed pretty busy when we walked in but we were seated right away in one of the back rooms.  Our waitress was very friendly and Zander being the social butterfly and ladies man that he is was constantly chatting her up.  Abby and Zander ordered their usual's and I ordered the Eggs Benedict with a potato pancake.  The service was prompt, which I really appreciate, and our food came fairly quick.

Abby's biscuits and gravy were a different take on the traditional classic.  Not really much sausage in them but tons of other different flavors, a new spin on what can be a boring dish.  The biscuits were light and fluffy and the gravy was loaded with savory spices. Abby thought they were very good and was pleasantly surprised by their flavor. I only snuck one bite but I agreed with her completely.  My eggs benedict tasted good but they weren't anything too exciting and the holendaise had very little flavor. I'd rate them as average.  The accompanying potato pancake was very interesting.  It was very savory and loaded with herbs. Crispy on the outside and soft in the middle, very well cooked.  Z enjoyed his bacon and pancake.  He must have anyway because he devoured them before I could ask.

Portion sizes at The Green Gateau are very generous but their prices are higher than the other places we have been.  Our bill was roughly $40 for the three of us.  The food was "ok". They do interesting twists on standard breakfast fare but overall they land in the middle of the pack.  I really have no complaints but nothing was jumping out as outstanding.  If you are looking for a classier place to take someone and want to avoid a greasy spoon than this is the place for you.